JeanneAnne

November 6, 2011

>>...the free L$ scams that still haunt SL. One, you do not get much. Second, one could spend more gettting free L$ than getting any profit.<<

I agree. I've seen bunches of avatars standing around those chairs with letters on them, just waiting for the letter their names start with come up. What a waste of time! There's so much fun stuff to do in SL that I can't believe people are willing to just hang around & wait like that, just for a few $L or some cheap freebie. I'll hang out in a club that gives free $L just for being there, but only if I like the music. (Actually, if I don't like the music I'll just stream better music over Winamp.) I'm not going to put up with anything I don't like, just in order to gain a few $L. I can have too much fun in SL for free, to put up with any boredom in exchange for $L.

>>The important thing is nothing in life is free that is worth having in the long run.<<

You're kidding about this, aren't you Master Jedi? Love is free. Oxygen, sunlight, water and much food, if you forage for it or grow it yourself, is free. Fire is free. I can't believe you're serious. If you are, I'd say that you have things exactly backwards. Everything in life that is worth having, in the short and long terms, is absolutely free. In fact, I would say that how much something costs and how worth having it is, are totally negatively correlated.

>>The number that failed to do so is no different than in the history of America moving west.<<

The history of America moving West is the history of genocide of the Native Americans. You seem to regard this history as being a good thing, or at least justifiable or to be expected; as if entire Nations had to die in order for a few invaders to make money. Surely this isn't your intention. If not, you really choose a poor metaphor for whatever it is you're saying.

>>One can build things without any restraints.<<

Prim limits aren't restraints? Not being able to afford to rent server space from LL in order to store the code for the stuff you "build" isn't a restraint?

>> Linden Labs simply enjoys all that has been created in SecondLife with the rest of us.<<

Linden Labs goes beyond simply exploiting content creators, by profiting more from that content than its creators do, to superexploiting them by inducing them to pay for creating content, rather than being paid for their work. You seem to applaud this superexploitation, even revel in it. I'm not sure what to make of this. Would you pay me to be allowed to come to my house and build stuff for me? That is what you do when you pay LL to upload the content you create and pay tier in order to have a "place" to put it.

November 4, 2011

Charolotte Caxton wrote:

Oh, cool. Thanks.

Is that like a communist versus capitalism type scenario? Like how there used to be a huge communist socialist republic and a huge capitalistic democracy and the socialist one crumbled but the capitalist one flourished?

...

I think your ideology sounds pretty in thought, but is doomed to failure in practice.

Don't you have that backwards Charolotte? Isn't it the Capitalist West who owes the farm to Communist China these days?

How do you know that my ideology is doomed to failure in practice? Why don't we try it and find out?

Jeanne

November 4, 2011

Void Singer wrote:

so in your esteemed view LL should make everything available for free and never consider their own cost for maintaining and improving SL? and you don't think that's a rather naive and self centered position to hold?

Of course the electric bill must be paid, Void, and maintenance & upgrades on the servers paid for, and salaries paid to the programmers & technicians & service personnel who keep the grid up & running. This is why I think everyone should pay a modest user fee for participation in SL. But dividends to shareholders and salaries that make millionaires out of chief executives only amounts to parasitism. If SL was run on a non-profit basis, this parasitism could be eliminated and the funds either spent on upgrades or saved in terms of reduced user fees. The self centered position is on the part of those who profit obscenely off the creativity of content creators who then must pay - rather than be paid - for the dubious priviledge of displaying their creations in SL. If SL was owned and managed by its participants content creators could perhaps be remunerated for their contributions, rather than having to pay tier & upload fees for all their time & trouble. It's remarkable how many of these very content creators will spring to the defense of the very business model that exploits them, how they will attack me (don't like my "tone," for instance) for even mentioning such an idea while seeking to rationalize LL policy. "Cohesion unto the oppressor" is a very real phenomonon.

Jeanne

November 4, 2011

Charolotte Caxton wrote:

Hi.

I like your name, I think it's pretty.

If it weren't for the rapacious corporate overlords, would there be a SL to

like

?

There very well could be, and a better one at that. If SL was run as a non-profit consortium of its members, with everyone paying a modest user fee, just to cover expenses, and a democratic form of governance, there well could be a SL we could all like better than the virtual dictatorship LL imposes. It could be a SL where inequality ceases to be the norm, where the class distinction between homeless & $L-less "freeloaders" and a wealthy & landed elite ceases to exist. SL could be run as a Marxist utopia rather than as a sordid Capitalist scam whereby the time, creativity and talent of content creators are exploited by greedy corporate overlords. I've said this before in these fora and been dogpiled by exploited apologists suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, for my troubles, but oh well... If you don't mind paying for the "priviledge" of creating content that enriches corporate executives and investors, rather than being paid for your services, then carry on ... It ceases to amaze me that the 99% will defend the 1% who exploit them.

Jeanne

November 4, 2011

Rolig Loon wrote:

You are quite right, though ..... the disparaging tone was unnecessary.

All I do is tell the truth, point out the obvious, describe things accurately instead of in terms of marketing hype... and somehow that comes across as "disparaging." Well... too bad. I am new enough to SL (<3 months) to see things from an outsider's perspective rather than from the acculturated perspective of those who have long since bought into the hype uncritically. From my perspective LL is a greedy corporation exploiting those they've somehow managed to finaggle money out of. I don't mean to disparage you guys, you content creators, you server space renters, you few who pay the way for the masses of us "freeloaders." I mean to disparage the rapacious corporate overlords who exploit you for the sake of profit. I like SL or I wouldn't even bother.

Jeanne

November 4, 2011

Sy Beck wrote:

Out of interest, what do you think would happen if all the paying customers took your advice too? Your freeloading theory of SL economics is only possible because there are people doing all the things you advise others not to do, such as buying land, bringing money into the game and purchasing premium.

If your contribution to SL is to just take from it, well that's fine, but a little less disparaging and general disdain of others who choose to contribute wouldn't go amiss either. They are after all the ones paying for your little free playground to exist.

Like I've said before Sy, I'm the wrong one to complain to about this. LL, in their divine wisdom, has made it possible - indeed, encouraged - the vast majority of us to play SL for free. If you don't like LL's business policy by all means feel free to complain to them about it. Maybe they'll listen... :matte-motes-big-grin-squint:

Jeanne

November 4, 2011

Kempaggio wrote:

so i just signed up and was thinking about doing a premium account, is it worth it?

No.

Why pay for something you can have for free?

It's perfectly possible to enjoy SL fully without ever paying a cent of real money for it. You can even build stuff in public sandboxes if building appeals to you. You can sell stuff over the browser marketplace if you want to. The 117 prims you get with a so-called "premium" (paid) account aren't sufficient to do much with, so it's just a scam to intice you to "buy more land" (rent server space) for storing the code for the stuff you "build." But why should you? SL is overbuilt as it is. Entire beautiful sims are routinely deserted. Why contribute to the clutter? All you're doing is making a cut-throat corporation richer and yourself poorer by doing so.

Rezz wherever you logged off from, I say, and roam SL at will, unencumbered by "stuff." Listen to music, dance, chat, make friends, conduct romances, explore around, fly, go underwater, and do all the fun stuff SL has to offer, but don't build more stuff (or don't save it if you do), don't buy stuff (there's plenty of good stuff available for free) and by all means don't pay LL any real money. You don't get anything in return for spending real money on SL, over & above what you get for free, that even comes close to justifying the expense. If you can afford a premium account, rather than opening one, donate that money to charity instead.

Jeanne

November 4, 2011

greek Wingtips wrote:

I been in SL for about 3 years now and seen lots of changes, alas I am afraid I feel SL has gone downhill,

LL has pushed Marketplace to a point that now it does not pay to just try and sell from a shop in SL as before, the advertising is not the worth the money is written on you spend so much in $L to advertise but the search viewer just dont work as the old one.

Many are leaving SL this has to be adressed by LL, the fact we are in a recesssion why don't LL reduce the tiers as help us.

would they prefer us to just close shop and leave or help us make it through these times?

My other Gripe is why don't LL hear what we have to say and adress it , have an open forum with us and lets hear what they have to say about our gripes,

many of my friends have left SL and although I love it I steering towards that myself, I want LL to adress our problems and be transperent and tell us they are.

The biggest most grip I hear, is too many of us log in to SL only to spend most of the time dealing with bloddy tec problems, if its not rebaking, frezzing,crashes,no TP's ect, we spend most of the time doing this rather thatn getting on and playing the game, this is the most I hear about from others and the biggest reason people are leaving SL,

LL you need to get your act together, him us and tell us what your doing, falling on deaf ears will only lead to more people leaving

Let's face it greek Wingtips, LL is an American corporation, bound by federal law to not take anything into consideration over & above shareholder profit. LL owns the platform, the servers, and they make they rules. LL exercises God-like power over SL. They can ban you or pull the plug altogether and none of us have any recourse. They can change the terms of service, listen or not listen to complaints on their own whim, charge what they like for tier, and there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing, that is, but decline to participate.

Personally, I like SL and intend to participate in it until I get burnt out on it. However, I'm not about to spend one cent of real money making LL executives & shareholders rich. The whole idea of "owning land," as if binary data is somehow three dimensional, is silly. You don't need to rent server space from corporate pirates in order to participate and you don't need to buy imaginary stuff from other players, either. There are perfectly servicable avatars in the library for free, which you can modify with sliders and outfit with freebie stuff & stuff people gives you. Don't let a corporation take advantage of you by playing on the greed, envy, jealousy and status consciousness that comprise the worst part of what makes us human. Enjoy SL on your own terms, rather than on the terms imposed by the LL Gods. Play for free and have fun!

Jeanne

November 3, 2011

ellerc wrote:

Hi good people of the forums! I am hoping to get some advice about my wardrobe dilemna. Since joining SL I've developed a shopping habit and have acquired a sizable (and fashionable :matte-motes-bashful-cute-2:) wardrobe. The problem is, about a 1/3 of it is unwearable - due to either skin showing in odd places, shoes that rezz jagged or my feet stick through (I'm wearing the base), butt sticking out of a skirt, necklaces that hide in my boob or neck... you get the picture.

I've tried my hand at editing the pieces to my shape but it all turns into a clusterf**k and I make it much worse than it was before. It's becoming frustrating because some of the pieces were pricey (some were bargains); some are just very lovely things that I really want to wear.

I like the size, proportions and shape of my avi and i'm not too excited about the possibility of altering my avi. Is there any way to fix the clothing without having to change my avi or ruin the pieces?

Elle

You gotta learn to edit stuff to fit. Move, rotate, stretch. It's easy but it does take practice. I know... it's tedious to learn & takes time out from the fun stuff you'd rather be doing in SL. But SL being what it is, you just have to do it. Good luck!

Jeanne

November 3, 2011

JeanneAnne wrote:

Has anyone read:

Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtual Human (2008) by Tom Boellstorff?

Is it worth reading?

Thanks!

Jeanne

Okay! I have read Boellstorff's book. Sorry it took so long but I had to order it by snail mail, finish the book I was already reading before starting it, and, frankly, SL takes up a lot of the time I used to spend reading.

I liked "Coming of Age in Second Life" and recommend it to others. Much of the stage setting material, in which he attempts to justify ethnographic methods for studying virtual worlds, is dry and directed towards academics. Skip this part if you want. But when he gets down to discussing his experiences in SL, the book is fascinating. Some of the specific content is dated (for instance, when he says that LL is phasing out these fora - they obviously didn't or we wouldn't be here) but the generalities of building, sociality, political economics, etc., haven't changed substantially as far as I can tell.

I particularly found fascinating his discussion of temporality in virtual words; about how how unlike space, time resists virtualization. His discussions of lag, time zone differences, "afk" (I tend to type it "aftc"), etc., really go to the heart of the SL experience, imo. I also enjoyed his take on "griefers" or "goons" and the history he gave of self-replicating objects taking down the entire grid. To add balance, he also recognizes the kindness many residents extend to one another. So far, I have certainly experienced far more kindness in SL, than grief. The only real grief I have experienced (the robot that removed my clothes & hair) was more of a joke than anything serious.

The final section of the book discusses LL's business model which Boellstorff terms "Creationist Capitalism." To me, this is the most serious and interesting part of the book. Depending on how you feel about capitalism in general, and LL in particular, this business model can be admired as pure genius or disparaged as pure evil. Basically, what LL has accomplished is to induce people to pay them for doing their work for them. Whereas other corporations who sponser online virtual worlds pay programmers for creating content, LL has played upon peoples' healthy desire to express creativity, in order to inspire or coerce (depending on how you look at it) them to pay for the priviledge or obligation of creating the content that draws others to SL. From a Marxist perspective this amounts to superexploitation of labor by the ruling class. Yet LL has managed to get intelligent creative people to willingly submit to such exploitation! This arrangement simply has to be admired as a coup of evil genius, regardless of how much one may detest its consequences. LL's business model counts on both the best and worst of human nature being expressed, in order to be successful. It counts on people's natural desire or need to create, but it also assumes that newbies will be inspired by greed, envy and jealously to seek to emulate the creative class and aspire to join their ranks. All of this devised by Corporatist entrepreneurs in order to enrich themselves and their investors.

While Boellstorff seeks to project professional objectivity it's pretty obvious that he admires LL's success at foisting this "Creationsit Capitalism" business model onto the public, more than he condemns its inherent exploitativeness. I suppose that this is to be expected from someone well socialized to the dominant culture paradigm in a Fascist Corporatocracy. In general, I would say that Boellstorff takes SL, and virtual worlds in general, far too seriously. They are, first and foremost, an entertainment venue, and those who loose track of this and become caught up in them to the neglect of RL do so at their own peril. All the drama discussed in the book, and in these fora, needs to be stepped back from and examined more objectively. It seems to me that Boellstorff "went native" in SL, the culture he was tasked to examine ethnographically, and came away from his research with a far too romantic regard for a virtual culture that only exists in order to serve the bottom line of exploitative Corporatists. While Boellstorff acknowledges this he fails to condemn it with anything near the vehemence it deserves.

This is my book report! Submitted by,

Jeanne Anne Decosta :womantongue:

November 1, 2011

Nimue Mistwalker wrote:

HAHAHAHH!! I read your post about that and LMAO!!! What happened to you sooOOooo reminded me of Christmas Eve night 3 yrs ago LOLOL! I tped home and took a bunch of pictures.. it was hilarious. Sounds like you got a real kick out of your robot thing too :robottongue:

LoL yeah... I did get a kick outuv it... But... it also kinduv scares me, in that if something harmless like this can happen, something worse prolly can too. No telling what kinduv script might be in something, like... takes all you $L, or makes your avvie spam nazi IMs, or... who knows what?!? One things for sure.. Im goin2 be more careful about accepting stuff from stranger!. :smileyhappy:

Jeanne

November 1, 2011

Nimue Mistwalker wrote:

... I've seen a lot of crazy stuff on SL.. I've been turned into a naked male avi with only high heels hair and earrings on, but, I've never had something like this before... :matte-motes-sour: LOL

WoW!! This sounds something like the robot that turned me naked & bald the other evening. I was beginning to think that SL is remarkably free of the kinduv malicious code you see elsewhere on the web but maybe it isn't afterall. What's next, booters? I was under the impression that "griefers" were just ppl who annoyed you; didn't realize that they could embed scripts in objects that would do stuff like this. How is a newbie supposed to deal with this kinduv thing?

Jeanne

November 1, 2011

Fascinating! Thank you so much Innula & Sassy.

I didn't even know what RLV meant until yesterday. I'm sure that I didn't check it. (I have messed with some of the preferences, just to see what they would do, but I don't think I even saw that box before.) My only guess must be that that dom guy somehow did it when he collared me. He wanted to "activate" the collar but I TPed home, removed the collar and logged out. I kept it in my inv as a trophy and have even worn it as jewelry a time or two. I was warned to be careful of it but thot that since it hadn't been "activated," it was harmless. I think I will delete it when i log in this evening. With the help & advice of you all, I'm slowly but surely figuring out how SL works! Thanks again.

Jeanne

November 1, 2011

Innula Zenovka wrote:

It's off by default in Firestorm. The setting is Prefs → Firestorm → General → Allow scripted viewer controls. This should be unchecked, if you don't want RLV activated. If, for some reason, it is activated and you don't want it to be, uncheck it and relog. But it shouldn't be unless you've turned it on for some reason.

Aha!! Allow Remote Scripted Viewer Controls was checked. I never checked it, but... I bet I know how it got checked...

I bet it happened when I stole that slave collar from that doofy dom guy. (I told that story in these fora before.) I didn't think the collar got "activated" but I guess the box got checked when he put it on me.

Hmmm, tho... The guy who gave me that robot wasn't the same guy I stole the collar from. Can someone tell that RVL is checked on someone else's avatar? Have I been wearing a tag all this while without seeing it? And what does a ltl robot have to do with it? Sorry for all my questions but this is interesting! (RLV is unchecked now.) Thanks!

Jeanne

November 1, 2011

Innula Zenovka wrote:

Are you using a viewer with RLV turned on? If you are, then I know how to remove all your clothes and attachments by script, but otherwise it's just not possible.

I use Firestorm. How do I tell if RLV is turned on or not?

October 31, 2011

Hi Melita.

Yesterday in SL I went on a treasure hunt in Folkvangr on the Lexicolo sim. I found 3 of the 9 items by myself, then my bf came inworld & he showed me how to "cheat" by using a search function on the local map to find the rest. I wouldn't have done that 'cept I didn't want to be late for the Samhain circle w/ the coven from Artemis Tavern. We attended the circle & the ritual was very nice. Then we went to a restaurant & had a virtual meal (I ate ice cream with chopsticks LoL) and after that, met some friends at a haunted house. I was in bed by 11!

Tonight my mom's coven will circle but I won't be able to attend. I'll honor the ancestors informally, & give candy to any trick-r-treaters who come by. First I have to do some shopping tho. I'm not going out other than that so I'll probably be in SL at some point.

Last week I stuffed a big squash with potatos & onions & mushrooms, etc., & baked it. Me & my housemates finally finished the leftovers from that this past weekend. Not sure what I'll have for supper this evening. Probably candy!!

Happy Halloween!

Jeanne

October 31, 2011

Chelsea Malibu wrote:

It sounds like instead of "Wear" it did a "Replace". I know you can do a Wear Object script, couldnt you also do a "Replace" script?

I was pretty sure I clicked 'wear' not 'add to outfit' (& thereby accidently hit 'replace outfit') cuz it appeared under objects not outfits. But, then, it was several evenings ago (last Friday, I think) and I may not remember exactly what I did. Seems like I didn't go to outfits 'til I saw myself naked. I'm not sure how it all works, tho, so if people who understand how sl works much better than I do say that the only way it coulduv happened was if i accidently clicked 'replace outfit' then maybe I did. The way the guy who offered me the robot laughed, like "Haha gotcha!" made me tend to believe that he did it on purpose altho he didn't say that & I didn't ask. The whole thing struck me as more of a joke than as anything malicious but it made me think that if script like that could be embedded in an object then so could more malicious script be. Could very well just be something I did to myself tho, too. I'm just curious about the whole thing, is all.

Jeanne

October 31, 2011

squashy Beeswing wrote:

Exactly what Innula said. That's why your hair came off as well. I've done the 'replace outfit' thing by accident heaps of times. Nothing sinister there at all. :smileyhappy:

'K Guess that's what mustuv happened, then. Thanks everyone, for helping me figure this out!

Jeanne

October 31, 2011

Innula Zenovka wrote:

Sassy and I have just been chatting about this in world, and we think we know what happened. Sassy's busy and asked me to post our solution.

We think that the little robot gave you a copy of itself in a folder, and you accidentally clicked "Replace Current Outfit" rather than "Add to Current Outfit".

I can't think of any way other way to do what you describe unless you're using a viewer with RLV turned on.

Hmmm... Innula. I don't think that's what I did, but I guess I could have. It happened kinduv fast and I don't remember exactly what I clicked. The way the guy laughed when it happened made me think that he'd done it as a joke. You may be right, tho!

Jeanne

October 31, 2011

Venus Petrov wrote:

No, it has never happened to me. If you still have that robot in your inventory, try adding it to your avie and see if your clothes, etc. remain on. It may have just attached itself to all the points you were wearing something (which is extremely weird).

You might be better off just deleting the sucker.

Thanks Venus. I already deleted, which made it go to my garbage and from there I purged it so I think it's gone. If I'd been thinking I would have shared it with my alt, which I don't care much about, & experimented with it on her.

Jeanne

October 31, 2011

Sassy Romano wrote:

It sounds like you were wearing a lot of prim items because unless you were using an RLV enabled viewer, there's no scripting function to removing clothing layers, however it would be utterly trivial to invoke llDetachFromAvatar script command to remove attachments from all the attachment points.

I guess that's what someone did, Sassy. In my case it was just a joke and even I thot it was funny. If I had been a total noob & not have had any outfits ready it would've been more embarrassing and I would have probably just logged out. But it makes me think that if it's possible to embed scripts in objects like this, more malicious things could be embedded such as deformers & booters, or things that are more difficult to fix or get rid of. I wonder how common things like this are in SL. Guess I learned my lesson about uncritically accepting things from strangers. Could of been worse, tho, I reckon..

Jeanne

October 31, 2011

The other evening I was dancing in a club and there was a little silver robot on the floor. A guy asked me if I wanted the robot to wear on my shoulder and I said "sure"! It appeared in my inv and I clicked "wear." Then it appeared on my shoulder alright but at the same time, all my clothes came off & even my hair!! I clicked on an outfit & was soon clothed again but the guy and other people in the club got a good laugh over the dumb noob falling for his trick. I've heard of "deformers" before but this robot didn't deform my avatar, just made her naked & bald. Has anything similar ever happend to you before?

Jeanne

October 29, 2011

Success! Added 'Pamela Galli' to ignore list.

October 29, 2011

Celestiall Nightfire wrote:

So, I'll second Pamela's question? Do you work for wages? Are you employed? Do, you support yourself financially?

Please review the Second Life "Community Standards," specifically items #2. & #4.. Thank you!

http://secondlife.com/corporate/cs.php

Jeanne

October 29, 2011

Madelaine McMasters wrote:

I don't need to imagine it, we're actually improving, though not by the methods espoused by either of your examples.

I hope you're right Madelaine. The Occupy Wall Street movement gives me hope. As for SL, I'm too new to assess whether or not it's improved in terms of equality. Even if it has, tho, it still has a loooooooooong way to go. I hope that we can work together on further progress in this direction.

Happy Halloween!!

Jeanne

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